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civile RIGHTS, 



SPEECH 

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HON. BENJAMIN F. BUTLEE, 



OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



IN 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

JANUAEY 7, 1874, 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1874. 



' 2- 



^f/-^ 










SPEECH 

OF 

ON. BENJAMIN F. BUTLEE. 



The House having under consideration the Civil-Rights bill — 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts, said : Mr. Speaker, I recognize f uHy 
the importance of tlie bill now before the House, as well to the legisla- 
tion of the country as to the great interests of political science, and the 
spread of just ideas of the equality of men in all nations of the earth. 
No graver subject, I agree with the gentleman fi"om [Georgia, [Mr. 
Stephens,] can occupy the attention of any legislative body. I 
'<le«ire, therefore, representing from my position as a member of the 
committee the majority party in this House upon this occasion, that 
there shall be nothing done herein by us, who have the power to do 
as we will, that shall not be done after the most careful consideration 
and deliberation, so that it shall be a measure when made law to 
commend itself to the judgment of all mankind. This is made a 
double duty upon us, ha\'ing so great a majority, and being opposed 
by so small a minority in numbers, to see to it that by our legislation 
the republic shall take no detriment. And therefore it will be con- 
venient for me to indicate the purpose I have, after finishing what I 
have to say, and that is, to move to recommit the bill to the com- 
mittee, in order that the ten or twelve amendments which have been 
offered — and which are cut off by the motion to recomniiit — shall not 
fail to have that full consideration by the Law Committee of the 
House, to which all amendments offered in good faith are entitled in 
so grave a matter ; and I desire f lU'ther 

Mr. WOOD. The gentleman from Massachusetts indicates his in- 
tention — indeed he has so declared — after he has closed his remarks, 
to move that the bill with the amendments be recommitted? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. Yes, sir. 

Mr. WOOD. Now, I think it due to frankness to say that after he 
has exhausted three or foiu* days in fruitless debate, a proposition to 
recommit the bill in the same form in which he reported it is, in my 
judgment, trifling with this House, and with this country. He has 
succeeded in producing irritation and in exhausting time in imprac- 
ticable speeches on a question of no practical use to the country, to 
the exclusion of legislation useful and necessary to the country. I 
say, sir, that he owes an apology to the House and the country if he 
proposes to recommit in view of the circumstances to which I have 
referred. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I may, Mr. Speaker, owe an apol- 
ogy to the House and the country if I move to recommit this bill, 
but certainly I shall not owe any apology to my friend fi'om New 



York for takiuf^ sucli action as I believe to be just and proper when 
lie lectures me iu the time wliicb I grant bini. Further, sir, I am sorry 
to hear the gentleman from New York characterize this debate as 
" fruitless," because a large part of it has been carried on by those 
who associate with him politically. I thought the same thing in some 
degree, but I dare not say it ; and I am very glad that he has said that 
to his political associates which my sense of coiu-tesy to them has 
prevented me from saying. I leave him and the learned and dis- 
tingTiished gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] who occupied 
more time than anybody else, to settle that question of fruitless- 
ness of debate between them. It is no affair of mine. I have not 
occupied ten minutes yet. 

Now, sir, my apology to the House for moving to recommit this bill 
is that I desire that these amendments which have been offered shall 
be fully and fairly considered. There are some twelve of them. Other- 
wise the majority of the House would be j)laced in this unpleasant 
position, they must either refrain from allowing amendments to be 
voted upon, or must take up two days in calling the roll in voting 
upon these twelve amendments. That is my apology to the House 
and the country; for let me say to the gentleman and the House that 
when we bring back the bill matured, after due consideration of all 
this "fruitless debate," and carefully weighing all the amendments 
offered in good faith — and in bad faith, as one or two of the latter seem 
to have been — we shall not allow anymore time to be spent in "fruit- 
less debate" over it, but make it the law as speedily as due regard to 
legislative forms will permit. 

Now, sir, let me point to a few of the arguments which have been 
adduced against this bill on the other side of the House. 

Mr. DAWES. If it will not disturb my colleague I would like to 
inquire whether the order authorizing the committee to report at any 
time will extend to a new report of the bill ? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I so understand it. I understand 
that the order to report at any time will extend to a new report of 
the bill. 

The SPEAKER. The Chair would so rule. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I so understood, and was proceed- 
ing on that assumption. I thought it due to the minority to consider 
their objections to the bill, dealing with them fairly, openly, and in 
a spirit of candor after we heard them. I was saying, when inter- 
rupted, that I proposed to reply now to some of the arguments which 
have been adduced as well as I may in the very short time I have 
reserved for myself. I should have considered more at length the con 
stitutional argument, were it not for the exhaustive presentation by the 
gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Elliott] of the law, and the 
only law quoted against us in this case that has been cited, to wit, 
the Slaughter-house cases. He, with the true instinct of freedom, 
with a grasp of mind that shows him to be the peer of any man on 
this floor, be he Avho he may, has given the full strength and full 
power of that decision of the Supreme Court. If I should criticise 
that decision at all, it would be to say that I think the court has too 
strictly confined the operation of the fourteenth amendment to the es- 
tablishment of hiunan rights alone, for the decision says it was meant 
to secure human rights, personal rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness, and was meant for nothing more and did nothing more, 
and the decision expressly points to the security of those rights by 
the appropriate legislation which was enacted by that great amend- 
ment — an amendment which was a step forward in the^ progress of 



bnmaii events — wliich gave liljorty to the world. Having myself no 
doubts npon the constitutionality of the measure, not believing for 
a moment that there is any right which a subject of Great Britain 
has under the Magna Charta that a citizen of the United States has 
not under the Constitution of the United States as now amended to 
conform to that great bill of rights of the subject, I pass to some other 
objections. 

The first objection we meet, but last presented, is that we propose 
to establish social equality; and the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. 
Crutchfield] offered an amendment that our daughters shall be pro- 
hibited by penalty from their right of choice in those who projjose 
marriage to them. If he has got no further than that after hearing 
the debate of the last few days, then, indeed, I agree with the gentle- 
man from New York, that to some men the debate has been futile and 
fruitless. If he does not understand we are not enacting any such 
proposition, then he could never even appreciate the answer a lady of 
the North would make to his addresses when she answers ''no," which 
after fathoming his capabilities would assuredly be given. 

''Equality!" We do notproposeto legislate to establish any equality. 
I am not one of those who believe that all men were created equal, 
if equality is to be used in its broadest sense. I believe that "equal" 
in the Declaration of Independence is a political word, used in a 
political sense, and means equality of political rights. AH men are 
not equal. Some are born with good constitutions, good health, 
strength, high mental power ; others are not. Now, we cannot by 
legislation make them equal. God has not made them equal, with 
equal endowments. 

But this is our doctrine : Equality, if I understand it and may be 
allowed for the moment to speak for the republican party — and I will 
embody it in a single phrase, as the true touch-stone of civil liberty — 
is not that all men are equal, hut that every man has the right to he the 
equal of every other man if he can. Let me repeat it. Every man has 
the inalienable, God-given right to be the equal of every other man if 
he can. And all constitutions, all laws, all enactments, all preju- 
<lices, all caste, all custom in contravention of that right is luijust, 
wicked, impolitic, and unchristian, and surely will be brought to 
jiaught. 

TMs bill of ours only removes all impediments to every man in 
making himself the equal of every other man if God has given him the 
power to become thus equal ; and I think the exhibition of yesterday 
showed that God has given to one of the negro race the power to be the 
equal, in all that makes a man, of the proudest man on this floor. And 
the debate has not been so fa» fruitless if it teaches us that God has 
not given to every man on this floor the power to be the equal of the 
colored man who spoke for his race yesterday, and svtch equality we 
cannot attain by legislation, or legislate some white men u}) to and 
some negroes down to the same level, however much we may try so 
to do. [Laughter and applause.] 

Sir, we were told yesterday also that Ave must resjjecf, in this re- 
gard, the prejudices of the South. Pardon me ; we must lament the 
prejudices of men in the South. We cannot respect them ; we lament 
them, and we pity them. With deep sorrow, and not offensively, I 
say this : jirejudice can never be the ground of legislation in regard 
to the rights of the citizen — never. We must legislate to give every 
man who is a citizen of the United States all the rights that every 
other man has. We must demand that prejudice shall square itself 
with the law. It is to meet that prejudice that this legislation has 



6 

been devised; that the fourteeuth article of amcndmeuts to the Coii- 
stitutiou of the United States was enacted, and to control which this 
legislation is brought forward. 

I thank the gentleman fi-oni Virginia [Mr. Harris] for saying, as 
• I tind in his reported speech he did say, that upon the subjects covered 
by this bill no State has legislated.' That is exactly why we must 
legislate here and now. States have made no guarantees in behalf 
of this class of their citizens ; have established no safeguards around 
them. It becomes our imperative duty, thej- being citizens of the 
United States, to make these guarantees, and'^ to j>lace around them 
these safeguards. That is why we are here. If it was not for this 
Ave should not have wasted anytime in debate — ''fruitless" or other- 
wise. 

Again, we are told that if we do pass this bill we shall break up the 
common-school system of the South. I assume this is ijitended as a 
threat. If so, to that I answer, as Na]>oleon did, " France never nego- 
tiates under a threat." I regret the argument, if it was one, was 
put forward in that form. *' Break up the common-school system of 
the South !" Why, sir, until we sent the carpet-baggers down there 
you had not in fact a common-school system in the South. [Laughter. ] 

Mr. MILLS. I would call the attention of the gentleman from 
Massachusetts [Mr. Butler] to the fact that Texas had the tinest com- 
mon-school svstem in the United States. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. What State? 

Mr. MILLS. Texas ; and more lands appropriated to it than any 
other State, and educated every indigent child in the State long 
before a carpet-bagger cam^ into it. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I have a report o]i that sul)ject, 
which I had intended to read to the House. 

Mr. MILLS. What report is it ? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. Hold a moment and you will hear 
it. I at tirst read from the North Carolina Common-School Journal, 
published in 1856, and from the third annual report of the superin- 
tendent of common schools of North Carolina : 

COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

There are State systems of common schools in the States of INIaiue, New Hamp- 
shire, Vermont. Massachusetts, Ehocle Ishuul, Connecticut, ISTew York, Pennsyl- 
vania, Kew^ Jersey, Delaivare, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky, 
Missouri — 

And there it stops, so far as the Southern States are concerned. 
Where was the " finest school system" of Texas then ? The report 
goes on : 

There are also imperfect systems, iutenderl Aostly for the poor, in Yirainia, Ten- 
nessee, and South Carolina ; and in various counties in Virginia this system is doiu<>- 
good. =. J » 

That is, they had pjiuper schools, where nobody could go unless he 
went as a pauper — as a matter of charity — and few took advantage 
of that. 

There is a system in Arkansas that seems to be very imperfect, and is attended 
by very few children. In Mississippi there is no uniform svstem of common 
schools ; hut in each county there is a reservation of public lands devoted to the 
cause of general education. Georgia has a small school fund, from which donations 
are made for the poor, &c. * 

That is the system >hich' I find, from southern authority, was iu 
vogue iu the Southern States before the war. There were no common 
schools to which every boy and girl who was of age for scholarship 
could with honor go, freely and without price. Of a school system 



7 

the pet of tlie people and tlie pride and boast of the State, a^^ in the 
North, nothing -was known in the Sonth. Indeed, if yon reilect for 
a moment yon will see that snch a school system for all was then 
impossible. Because of yonr large estates, you did not live within 
two miles of each other, and you could hardly get two small children 
together within a reasonable distance to make a school. [Laughter.] 

Now, then, for Texas. Texas, the gentleman says, appropriated 
large bodies of lands for educational purposes. Let me read from a 
report which bears this title : ^' First Annual Report of the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction for the State of Texas." When do you 
suppose it is dated? In 1871, long after the " carpet-baggers" had 
gone among you and taken control of your affairs. [Laughter.] 

Now, let us see what became of this immense fund. I ask the 
Clerk to read the passage I have marked.- 

The Clerk read as follows : 

This fund, that in 1861 amounted to $2,592,533.14, became during tlie -v^ar the prey 
of the enemies of the national Goveiument, and every availalde poition of It was 
used by them, in ^^olation of all law, for furthering their treas(mablc purjioses. 
One million two hundred and eighty-five thousaiul three hundred and twenty- 
seven dollars and five cents of available funds were, from time to time, during tin' 
existence of the rebellion, withdrawn from the school fund and expended, most of 
it under the direction of the militaiy board. Part of this fund accrued from sales 
of school lands, the balance was cash in the treasury, accrued interest and nego- 
tiable bonds and coupons. The amount (i<320,367.13) given in Statement H, as part 
of the permanent school fund, is the interest and principal paid in by railroad com- 
panies during and at the close of the rebellion in State -warrants "that had been 
issued during the war or at its close, and represented so much money that had been 
applied to unlawful piu'poses by the rebellious State government. 

Mr. MILLS. I now call the attention of the distinguished gentle- 
man from Massachusetts to the incorrectness of the assertion he made 
that there was no such thing as common schools in any of the Sonth- 
ern^States until the " carpet-baggers" took possession of those States. 
The report just read shows what I intended to state to the gentle- 
man — that out of the sales of a poii;ion of her territory many years 
ago Texas set apart two of the live million dollars paid to her, and 
devoted the amount to common schools, or to school piu-poses if the 
gentleman likes the term l)etter. The interest on that amount and a 
portion of the revenue derived from taxation were set apart for the 
education of her children. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I cannot yield my time to the 
gentleman further. The difficulty is that the gentleman does not 
know what a system of common schools for a State is. 

Mr. MILLS. Not such as vou advocate. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. There was a very large fund de- 
voted to schools in many of those States, but it was used only for 
education in the higher institutions of learning, (U' for ''indigent 
scholars." There was no system under which all children could go to 
common schools supported at the public expense. There was a large 
fund; but, as shown by the report of the Commissioner of Education, 
(which I have here but have not time to read, a report made before 
the war,) this fund existed on paper only, and not as an operative 
fact. 

The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Beck] told ns how generous a 

provision had been made by the State of Kentucky for the school 

fund ; and he threatened the repeal of that provision in case we should 

pass this l)ill. I have in my hand the laws of the State of Kentucky, 

and I read from an act passed in 1866 : 

Section 1. That all the taxes hereafter to be collected from negi'oes and mulat- 
toes in this Commonwealth shall be set apart and constitute a separate fund for 
their use and T)enefit, one-half, if necessary, to go to the support of their paui>ers, 
and the remainder for the education of their children. 



8 

\ 

How generous ! What uoTjle geuerosity ! [Langliter. ] You collect 
from the poorest class in your State a capitation tax, and then say 
that one-half of the money so raised shall go to their paupers, and the 
other half to educate their children. That is all. 

I read fiu'ther from the same act : 

Sec. 7. The auditor shall apportion each year the revenue from the fimd realized 
under this act for the henetit of said paiipers among the several counties of the 
State, according to the number of said paupers in each county, as shown by the re- 
ports of the several county coiu'ts, but uo part of said fund — 

That is the other half of it — 

shall not be otherwise drawn than pursuant to this act in aid of common schools 
fur negroes and mulattoes. 

Now you say that if we pass this bill you will take away that fund. 
Certainly, then, you will not tax the negro, will you ? Let us have that 
understood. If you take away all use from them of the fund raised by 
their taxation, do not continiTe to tax them. The poorest class of its 
citizens are taxed to support their own paupers and educate their own 
children ; and that is a Kentucky idea of a common-school system ! 

I am not to be moved by threats because the negroes are beyond your 
reach, if you choose to go into any unfriendly legislation against them. 
You are dependent upon them for the cultivation of your soil, for the 
labor in all departments of your industries, for the making of your 
States habitable. If you legislate against them, they will leave you 
to the i)0verty and disgrace consequent upon lazy, disgraceful pov- 
erty. [Laughter and applause.] Therefore I would, in all sincerity 
and kindness, advise no retaliatory or antagonistic legislation to the 
negro. 

But there are reasons why I think this question of mixed schools 
should be very carefully considered. The negroes, children as well 
as parents, have never, till the last few years, had any opportunity 
for education. It is to them the greatest boon on earth. It is to 
them the manna from heaven. They seek it as eagerly as did the 
Israelites seek the good gift of God which fed them from the clouds. 
Therefore, in negro schools which I established as military com- 
mander during the war I found that while I had plenty of school-boys 
with "shining morning faces," there were none "creeping unwill- 
ingly to school." They sprang to the school as to a feast; their 
advancement and acquirements were wonderful. And I shall move 
to recommit this l)ill, among other reasons, because I want time to 
consider whether upon the whole it is just to the negro children to 
put them into mixed schools, where, being in the same classes with 
the white chilldren, they may be kejit back by their Avhite confreres^ 
and not get on in learning as fast as they otherwise would. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

I do not think there will be any difference in the races in the next 
generation. There may l)e unwilling colored school-boys then as there 
are unwilling white school-boys now in my own State. I do not mean 
that white boys in Kentucky are different from white boys in Massa- 
chusetts. In Massachusetts we have truant-commissioners, who go 
round to see that our children go to school, because the schools are an 
every-day task to them — but for the colored child there is no need 
of any commissioner, and for this generation there never will be. 
And, therefore, I am (juite content to consider this question in the 
light of what on the Avholeis best for the Avhite and the colored child 
before the matter is again before the House. 

I come now, sir, with your leave, to deal with what is the only argu- 
ment whicli has been introduced here, the argument to jircjudice 



9 

Tlie learned gentleman fi-om Georgia [Mr. Stephexs] agrees with me - 
that every colored man now has all the rights which this bill gives 
him, bnt insists it is the States' duty to enforce them. But because 
of prejudice the States will not enforce them. What then ? To show 
how deep that prejudice is in the South, and that it is not shared by 
the North, I call the attention of the House that there has yet, in 
these two days of fruitless debate, been no man fi-om the North who 
calls himself a democrat who has risen to opj)ose this bill or make a 
speech against its provisions. If I am wrong in this, point him out. 
It shows that the North have all come to a conclusion on this subject — 
we on this side of the House actively, they on that side of the House 
passively — that these are rights guaranteed by the Constitution to 
every citizen, and that every citizen of the United States should have 
the means by which to enforce them. 

Mr. DeWITT. Mr. Speaker, as a northeru'democrat, I, for one, 
repudiate the inference which the gentleman chooses to di'aw from 
my silence in this debate. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. Who is next? [Laughter and 
applause.] 

Now, Mr. Speaker, if these are rights, again let me ask, why should 
they not be given to all citizens of the United States, if we have the 
constitutional power so to dof If the States give them and execute -^ 
them, then there will be no longer any need for this statute. It will 
" not be enforced and will do no harm. Where a State Avill do its duty, 
— there this statute will be inoperative. Where the State does not do 
its duty in this behalf, then the flag of the United States, and the 
130 wer of the United States, and the judiciary of the United States,.— 
should protect the|citizens against all unfriendly State legislation, or 
"•against the Avant of legislation. And I have the authority of the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Harris] for saying ''that no State 
has legislated on the subject." 

And it is because of the very prejudice which has prevented such ^ 
legislation that I claim the passage of the bill. 

Is it a j)rejudice at all? Was there any objection in the South to 
consorting with the negro as a slave? O, no; your children and 
your servants' children played together ; your cldldren sucked' the 
same mother with your servants' childi'en; had the same nurse; and, 
unless tradition speaks falsely, sometimes had the same father. 
[Laughter and applause.] 

Would you not ride in tirst-class cars with your negroes in the olden ■ 
time ? What negro servant, accompanying its mistress or master, and 
administering to his or her health, was ever denied a first-class pas- 
sage in a fii'st-class car in the South before the war ? What negro 
girl, being the nurse or servant of a lady, was not allowed to sit by 
that lady and her child in a lirst-class car ? W^hat negro servant, 
accompanying a lady or a gentleman, was ever denied admittance to 
a lirst-class hotel ? My friend from Tennessee, conlirming this, told 
us that in the olden time the master and his slave always used to 
worship) together in the same chm^ches, but that now there are sep- 
arate churches, and the negroes prefer to Avorship by themselves. 

These are facts before the Avar? You talk about yom- prejudices 
against social equality ! I put this question to the ininds and con- 
sciences of CA'ery man of you. Who is the highest in the social scale, 
a slave or a freeman ? You once associated with the slaA-e in CA'ery 
relation of life. He has now become a freeman, and now you cannot 
associate with him; he has got up in tlie scale, and you cannot stomach 
him. Why is this? It is because he claims that as a right which 



10 

you accorded him always freclj' as a boon. It is because the laws of 
your land, the Constitution of your country, gave all men equal 
rights in accordance with the fiat of .God Almighty which has made 
soine of them your equal in all things, and therefore he is no longer 
to be associated with or tolerated! This is not a prejudice against 
the negro or any jiersonal objection to him — it is a political idea 
only. 

I had, sir, to deal with this question early in the war, and I cannot 
better explain the operations of this kind of prejudice than by stat- 
ing the exact fact which happened on board one of the boats upon 
Chesapeake Bay, between Baltimore and Fortress Monroe. A mem- 
ber of the Christian Commission went North after two school-teach- 
ers, and brought back two ladies, one of whom had some colored 
blood in her veins, but so much more white that it took a connoisseur 
to fijid the color. The women bought first-class tickets, and took their 
state-room, sat down at the table, and paid for their supper. A Vir- 
ginian,'who was on board, being able to know a negro, from long use, 
whenever he saw one, smoked out the fact that one of them, a lady 
in dress, a lady in culture, a lady in manners, had some negro blood 
in her veins, and he complained to the clerk of the boat that ho 
could not eat at the table in the saloon with her, and the clerk 
ordered her forward among the deck-hands and servants. The ladv 
and her companion, frightened, ran to their state-room, and locked 
themselves in. The Virginian insisted on her l)eing taken out of that. 
But a provost messenger on board was roused to his duty, and insisted 
that all that should be stopped. Next morning complaint was made 
to me as commanding general, and I sent for the clerk — an inoftensive 
old gentleman, who looked as if he would not harm' anybody. I said, 
" What is all this ? " He said, " I was only carrying out the rules of 
my boat." I said, " Do you not recognize the fact the war has made 
a difference in these things?" He answered, "Not in the rules of 
our boat." I asked, "What were the rules of your boat l)efore the 
war? Could not a colored nurse go with the children of her mis- 
tress, and occupy a state-room with them ? " " Yes, sir." " Could she 
come to the tnble with them f " " Yes, sir." " Which do you think, 
Mr. Clerk, is the highest in the social scale, a freeman or a slave ? " 
" O, a freeman. General, of course." " Very well, Mr. Clerk ; I think 
I can make a rule for your boat now that will be easy of enforce- 
ment. Do not go away and say that the commanding general says 
that the negro is as good as a white man. I am not going to say an}' 
such thing. But hereafter let this be your rule : Let no free person 
ever be deprived of any privileges on your boat that were ever 
accorded to a slave x>erson. Do this, and there will be no trouble 
hereafter." And there was none. 

That tells the whole story and covers the whole argument of preju- 
dice. It is not a prejudice, gentlemen. You make a mistake. A preju- 
dice is where you do not like the thing itself. We in the North had 
somewhat of this prejudice against the colored. You of the South 
had none. From the rarity, tliey were offensive to us. But we are 
getting used to the negro, and are getting free from our former mode 
of feeling and speaking on the subject. That was a prejudice. But you 
had not any such feeling of dislike or offensiveness at the South. Now 
I am getting over that feeling and you are getting it. And it is a 
l)olitical idea you are getting and not a prejudice at all. [Laughter.] 

Now, sir, you will allow me to state how I got over my prejudices. 
I think the House got over theirs after the exhibition we had yester- 
day. I think no man will get up here and say he speaks only to white 



11 

mcu again. He must at first show himself worthy hefore he cau speak 
to some colored men in this House after what occiuTecl yesterday. 
[Applause.] 

I got over my prejudices from the exhihition of like high qualities • 
in the negro, hut in a different mamier from that in which, I have no 
doubt, many a prejudice was removed against the negro in the House 
yesterday. In Louisiana, in 1862, when our arms were meeting with 
disasters before Richmond, I was in command of the city of New Or- 
leans with a very few troops, and those daily diminishing by the 
diseases incident to the climate, with a larger numl)er oi confederate 
soldiers paroled in the city than I had troops. I called upon my Gov- 
ernment for re-enforcements, and they could not give me any, and I 
therefore called upon the colored men to enlist in defense of their 
country. I brought together the officers of two colored regiments that 
had been raised by the confederates for the defense of the city against 
us — but which disbanded when we came there because they would 
not fight against us, and staid at home when their white comrades 
ran away — and I said, " How soon can you enlist me one thousand 
men?" "In ten days, General," they answered; and when the thou- 
sand men Avere brought together in a large hall, I saw such a body 
of recruits as I never saw before. Why, sir, every one of them had 
on a clean shirt, a thing not often got in a body of a thousand recruits. 
[Laughter.] I put colored officers in command of them, and I organ- 
ized them. But we all had our prejudice against them. I was told 
they would not fight. I raised another regiment, and by the time I 
got them organized, before I could test their fighting qualities in the 
field, the exigencies of the service required that I should be relieved 
from the command of that department. 

I came into command again in Virginia in 1863. I there organized 
twenty-five regiments, with some that were sent to me, and disciplined 
them. Still all my brother officers of the Regular Army said my col- 
ored soldiers would not fight ; and. I felt it was necessary that they 
should fight to show that their race were capable of the duties of citi- 
zens ; for one of the highest duties of citizens is to defend their own 
liberties and their countiy's flag and honor. 

On the 29tli of September, 1864, I was ordered by the Commanding 
General of the armies to cross the James River at two points and attack 
ack the enemy's line of works; one in the center of their line. Fort 
Harrison, the other a strong work guardiug their left flank at New 
Market Heights ; and there are men on this floor who will remember 
that day, I doubt not, as I do myself. I gave the center of the line to 
the white troo2:)s, the Eighteenth Corps, under General Ord, and they 
attacked one very strong work and carried it gallantly. I went myself 
with the colored troops to attack the enemy at New Market Heights; 
which was the key to the enemy's flank on the north side of James 
River. That work was a redoubt built on the top of a hill of some con- 
siderable elevation ; then running down into a marsh ; in that marsli 
was a brook ; then rising again to a plain which gently rolled away 
toward the river. On that plain, when the flash of dawn was break- 
ing, I placed a column of three thousand colored troops, in close column 
by division, right in fi-ont, with guns at "right shoulder shift." I 
said, "That work must be taken by the weight of your column; no 
shot must be fired;" and to prevent their firing I had the caps taken 
from the nipples of their guns. Then I said, "Your cry, when you 
charge, will be, ' Remember Fort Pillow !' " and as the sun rose up in the 
heavens the order was given, "Forward," and they marched forward, 
steadily as if on ])arade — went down the hill, across the marsh, and as 



12 

they got iuto the brook they came Avithin range of the enemy's fire, 
which vigorously opened upon them. They broke a little as they 
forded the brook, and the column wavered. O, it was a moment of in- 
tensest anxiety, but they fonned again, as they reached the firm ground, 
marching steadily on with closed ranks under the enemy's fire, until 
the head of the column reached the first line of abatis, some one hun- 
dred and fifty yards from the enemy's Avork. Then the ax-men ran to the 
front to cut away the heavy obstructions of defense, while one thousand 
men of the enemy, with their artillery concentrated, poured from the 
redoubt a heavy fire ui)on the head of the column hardly wider than 
the Clerk's desk. The ax-men Avent down under that murderous fire ; 
other strong hands grasp the axes in their stead, and the abatis is cut 
away. Again, at double-quick, the column goes forward to within fifty 
yards of the fort, to meet there another line of abatis. The columnhalts, 
and there a very fire of hell is pouring upon them. The abatis re- 
sists and holds ; the head of the column seems literally to melt aAvay 
under the rain of shot and shell ; the flags of the leading regiments go 
down, but a brave black hand seizes the colors ; they are up again and 
wave their starry light over the storm of battle; again the ax- 
men fall, but strong hands and willing hearts seize the heavy, sharp- 
ened trees and drag them away, and the column rushes forward, and 
with a shout which now rings in my ear, go over that redoubt like a 
flash, and the enemy never stop running for four miles. [Applause 
on the fioor and in the galleries.] 

It became my painful duty, sir, to follow in the track of that charg- 
ing column, and there, in a space not wider than the Clerk's desk and 
thi'ee hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies of five hundred and 
forty-three of my colored comrades, fallen in defense of their country, 
who had offered up their lives to uphold its flag and its honor as a 
willing sacrifice ; and as I rode along among them, guiding my horse 
this way and that way lest he should profane with his hoofs what 
seemed to me the sacred dead, and as I looked on their bronzed faces 
upturned in the shiinng sun to heaven as if in mute appeal against 
the wrongs of the country for which they had given their lives, and 
whose flag had only been to them a flag of stripes on which no 
star of glory had ever shone for them — feeling I had wronged them 
in the past and believing what was the future of my country to them — 
among my dead comrades there I swore to myself a solemn oath, 
''May my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the 
roof of my mouth if I ever fail to defend the lights of these men 
who have given their blood for me and my country this day and for 
their race forever ;" and, God helping me, I will keep th at oath. [ Great 
applause on the floor and in the galleries.] 

From that hour all prejudice was gone, and an old-time States-right 
democrat became a lover of the negro race ; and as long as their rights 
are not equal to the rights of other men luider this Government I am 
wit^i them against .all comers, and when their rights are assured, as 
other men's rights are held sacred, then, I trust, we shall have what we 
sought to have, a united country North aiul South, white and black, 
under one glorious flag, for which we ami our fathers have fought with 
an equal and not to be distinguished valor. [Aj^plause.] 

Now, Mr. Speaker, these men have fought for their country ; one of 
their representatives has spoken, as few can speak on this floor, for his 
race; they have shown themselves our equals in battle; as citizens 
they are kind, quiet, temperate, laborious; they have shown that they 
know liow to exercise the right of suffrage which we have given to 
them, for they always vote right; they vote the rei)ublican ticket. 



pD 1.0.4 



10 
O 

and all the powers of deatli and hell cannot persuade them to do 
otherwise. [Lauohter. ] They show that they knew better than their 
masters did, for they always knew how to be loyal. They have in- 
dustry, they have temperance, they have all the good qualities of 
citizens, they have bravery, they have culture, they have power, they 
have eloquence. And who shall say that they shall not have what 
the Constitution gives them — equal rights? [Continued applause.] 

The SPEAKER. There has been too much tendency exhibited here 
of late to applaud the remarks of speakers. The rules require that upon 
any manifestation of applause in the galleries they shall be cleared. 

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